World Health Organisation Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus organised a press briefing on the current situation of COVID-19 cases.
In the press briefing, he said, “In January and February, the world saw six consecutive weeks of declining cases. We have now seen seven consecutive weeks of increasing cases, and four weeks of increasing deaths. Last week was the fourth-highest number of cases in a single week so far. Several countries in Asia and the Middle East have seen large increases in cases.”
He further added, “This is despite the fact that more than 780 million doses of vaccine have now been administered globally. Make no mistake, vaccines are a vital and powerful tool. But they are not the only tool. We say this day after day, week after week. And we will keep saying it.”
“Physical distancing works. Masks work. Hand hygiene works. Ventilation works. Surveillance, testing, contact tracing, isolation, supportive quarantine and compassionate care – they all work to stop infections and save lives,” said Ghebreyesus.
He adds, “WHO does not want endless lockdowns. The countries that have done best have taken a tailored, measured, agile and evidence-based combination of measures. But right now, intensive care units in many countries are overflowing and people are dying – and it is totally avoidable.”
Who Director General also talks about the vaccine production capacity and it demands fulfilment capacity and adds ” The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that global manufacturing capacity is not sufficient to deliver vaccines and other essential health products quickly and equitably to where they are needed most.”
Investing in sustainable and secure domestic manufacturing capacity and national regulatory authorities is critical for providing essential immunization programmes, and for building strong, resilient health systems against the inevitable health emergencies of the future.
To address this challenge, WHO and our partners have established a COVAX manufacturing task-force, to increase supply in the short term, but also to build a platform for sustainable vaccine manufacturing to support regional health security.
In the last 24 hours, India recorded 1.61 lakh COVID-19 case, 879 deaths. The cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country stands at 10,82,92,423 as per the 8 pm provisional report on Monday.
